Restaurant review Going shopping Injy El-Kashef spends a whole lot of money -- again Living in Muqattam means that I am closest of all my family and friends to Carrefour, the new hypermarket on Qattamiya Road. In turn, that means that every time one of them decides to check out this most recent of consumerist enterprises in Egypt, they contact me with the casual "Oh, come join us, it will be fun to go shopping together!" as my parents pleaded recently. And while I've already done my bit of shopping, how can I turn down the needy when they beckon at my door? Oh, no, I would not, I could not, and I dare not turn my back on my loved ones when they need me most. And so, acting on a purely altruistic instinct, and out of sheer kindness, I stack my purse with yet another huge sum of money and head to Carrefour with greedy -- I mean, benevolent -- eyes. After filling my trolley with all the goodies my money could buy, and just before purchasing the mattress my mind was set on, and checking out the candle, CD, and washing machine sections, I decided to stop by Cilantro in the food court at Carrefour. With my son still up, way past his bedtime, swinging his feet off the trolley, there was no way I could deny him the slice of cake, with chocolate fudge topping, he pleaded for. My mom was too tired to go and pick her own food, so she sat there and wisely ordered a Smoked Turkey Sandwich. Classic and conservative, her bet is that you can't go wrong with the tried and tested. And so, in fact, her toast was fresh, soft and loaded with all expected ingredients (butter, smoked turkey, tomatoes, lettuce and mayonnaise). My dad, on the other hand, quietly walked over to the shelves, spent a good 10 minutes there, and returned with the two cleverest choices to be made: the Watercress, Mushroom and Parmesan Cheese Salad, and a Turkey Wrap. The salad seemed truly nutritious, and balanced the subtle flavour of the (plentiful) mushrooms with the poignancy of the cheese shavings. His wrap, as all wraps should be, were thin with a dense filling of shredded ingredients, most prominently the cold cuts. My mom's initial reaction upon seeing our selection was really rather endearing: with the innocent bewilderment of a child, she moped "ohhhh, look! You two got very exciting things, only I got a boring turkey sandwich!" Her eyes proceeded to hover between his salad and my sandwich. My answer was "Mom do you know what is in my sandwich? Grilled aubergines, boiled spinach and Mozzarella cheese", to which she immediately answered "Yuck!" Bingo. Meanwhile, the little monkey was quietly, (quietly!), devouring his slice of cake, reaching it from all angles and making the most perfect chocolate smudges on his cheeks -- the ultimate proof that Cilantro knows exactly what to do with chocolate. For that I am eternally grateful, since it basically meant he would not send spoonfuls of my barely touched Coucous Salad flying across the small dining area onto unwary customers' shoulders or eyeglasses (the only item I did not wholeheartedly approve of was this salad, for complete lack of taste and balance between the hummus, green and red pepper bits). Washed down with Cilantro's fresh orange and guava juices, this was the perfect meal at the right place and time: fresh, nutritious, very reasonably priced and, in keeping with all the visual stimuli at Carrefour, ever so colourful. Cilantro, Carrefour hypermarket, Qattamiya Road, past the Cadbury Factory.
